When face-to-face communications are not practical, people often rely on one or more technological solutions to meet their communications needs. These solutions typically are designed to simulate one or more aspects of face-to-face communications. Traditional telephony systems enable voice communications between callers. Instant messaging (also referred to as “chat”) communications systems enable users to communicate text messages in real time through instant message computer clients that are interconnected by an instant message server. Some instant messaging systems additionally allow users to be represented in a virtual environment by user-controllable graphic objects (referred to as “avatars”). Interactive virtual reality communication systems enable users in remote locations to communicate over multiple real-time channels and to interact with each other by manipulating their respective avatars in multi-dimensional virtual spaces.
The presence state of a communicant usually indicates the availability of the communicant to communicate or otherwise interact with others. Some instant messaging systems allow a user to set his or her presence state by selecting a presence indicator from a predetermined list of indicators (e.g., “here”, “busy”, “out-of-office”, “do not disturb”). Some instant messaging systems also may automatically set the user's presence state to “idle” or “away” depending on whether activity on the user's computer terminal is detected. The instant messaging systems typically broadcast the user's presence state to other communicants (e.g., communicants on the user's “buddy list”) who should receive updates regarding the user's presence state.
What are needed are improved systems and methods for indicating and managing presence.